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Man, it's about freaking time. The stars and who knows what else finally aligned just right today, and with a day of damn near perfect temperature and humidity, I grabbed some spray cans and primed some figures, intending to get a fresh start on what are the first figures I have been able to paint since my now-8 month old daughter was born, which is like going cold-turkey for a guy whose been in the hobby for 20 years and owns about a dozen armies (and a dozen more projects) in various stages of completion.

Today's task was my force of Stormcast Eternals that have been languishing on my paint desk since last summer. Intended for skirmish games, it's a box of 5 Liberators, a starter set Lord Relictor, a Prosecutor, and a single Judicator with a bow.

As I have two kids to juggle my time around, I tried my hand at my first force ever to be primed with a base color spray to eliminate having to take time to hand-paint all that metal. Thank god the humidity was right, and it went on buttery smooth with no dusty-ness. Then it's just a Strong Tone wash for everything but the bare metal, which gets a coat of Dark Tone.


I wanted a Chamber that had more of the feel of eerily huge medieval knights, not godly avatars, so I'm painting them in bare metal with a split black and green heraldry. I also made it a personal goal with this force to have as many figures as possible have bare heads (Space Marine heads work awesomely) because not only do I hate the Stormcasts' faux-Cybermen heads, I also wanted each soldier in such a small force have an even more unique feel, so I even tried to have each head fit the stance and armament of each guy.

The original monopose figure painted last summer, with a Space Wolf head. Stoic behind a shield.


My first after 8 Months! Blood Angels head. Nothing but rage and a pair of hammers, for this guy.





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Here's a couple of pictures of the bare plastics of the next ones to get paint, the "Brute" and the duellist: The second figure is actually an Eldar head, to be a bit smaller framed and 'fast' feeling. Maybe he used to be an Elf, before his reforging.

That guy with the 2H-hammer looks like he is ready to do work! Cool looking force.

They look good.

A head suggestion is the ones from the Cadian Command Squad. There's two bare heads(slicked back hair and scarred duelist) that would look great on Stormcast.

Yeah, I also got some more mileage out of some Deathwatch heads by carefully shaving and removing the earpiece and sculpting a new ear. I don't really like the skull mask of the Relictor (it also makes him look like a bit of a pin-head), so I am either going to use a Retributor leader head (with the facemask painted as flesh, like an open faced helm) or maybe a hooded Space Marine head, either from the Deathwatch or Ravenwing.

Update time!

So far I've held to my short-term goal of one model a night, as I figure even that slow should pull a skirmish force together somewhat quickly. I hit a bit of a slowdown when I had to repaint the left pauldrons of the first two Stormcast before working on new ones, as I thought it looked better to mimic the green/black of the shield when seen from the front, so that's going to be the look for the entire force.

First up, the leader of my team, a Liberator Prime. I used what I think I remember as a Deathwatch head as I fell in love with the "grizzled old vet" look the muttonchops gave. Too bad it had a giant piece of tech in the place of the right ear of what was to be the head of a fantasy figure! So I spent some harrowing minutes very (very) carefully slicing it all off, and then resculpted the ear and a bit of the facial hair with greenstuff. Hmm...too bad I forgot to paint the rivets on his tabard before taking the pic......to say nothing of the slop of strong tone wash next to the hammer on his pauldron, grrr...........


I tried to make it look like he's yelling a challenge to a foe over the top of his shield.



A better shot of the ear. I think it's pretty passable, as I have little to no sculpting talent or experience. Usually I just fill gaps.



A simple and standard Liberator with a warblade, with another Blood Angel head.


The Group of four together. Holy cow, instead of a collection of unprimed models, after more than 8 months I actually have a playable warband! I am using them in games with the Fantasy skirmish rules from One Page Rules.
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Next up my unit needs a bit of ranged support, so I am adding a Judicator with a bow. This is another figure that got a head from the new Deathwatch marines, with an antenna that had to be cut away and a new left ear sculpted in it's place.





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Got my latest member done, I need to work on getting good face focus in my pictures:







Finally a group shot of the squad so far:

I've also been working on a Skaven force that I got from an awesome bitz seller for pennies at last Gencon. Originally for a Confrontation project (swapping out the Samurai Goblins of the Army of the Rat for actual Samurai Rats) until I get an army-sized force painted for that game they will probably be the main opponents of my Stormcast.


My warlord from the Island of Blood, with the 'way to protruding for dense Mordheim-styled terrain' brazier cut off his banner pole.





My counts-as Ratling Gun, as it sputters warp-lightning at foes downrange, hopefully not turning the wielder into a cinder....



Stormvermin. They are the bulk of the troops of my army, rather than Clanrats.

Cool stuff. I really like the bareheaded Stormcast Eternals.

Love the schene too, the silver and green looks brilliant.

EDC

These Stormcast look amazing - really nice and unique look with the bare heads.